As Denny Chimes struck midnight-a sound I have not heard in so long I can't recall the last occasion-I was none too happy with the state of Alabama football. Sure, the Tide had beaten an opponent from the SEC West by 19 points, but we were out-played in the third quarter and outscored in the second half. Field goals were kicked where touchdowns ought to have been scored, and the Ole Miss Rebellious Black Bears, or whatever they are calling themselves now, ran an up-tempo, no-huddle offense that earned 16 first downs and 218 total yards of offense.
My initial impressions were that special teams had earned high marks, but the offense and defense had been middling at best. But after a good night's sleep and some reflection, I have revised my evaluation upwards.
Let's put the 2012 Crimson Tide into some perspective: When Ole Miss scored to take the lead 7-6, it marked the first time since October 22, 2011 that Alabama trailed in regulation, and that deficit lasted all of 15 seconds. Alabama has been tied or ahead at the half in every game since the South Carolina game played on October 9, 2010. AJ threw two touchdown passes, giving him 12 on the year. He has recorded two or more TDs in four of the five games played so far this season and he has thrown 206 pass attempts without an interception. Alabama has scored in each of its 24 red zone appearances so far this year [16 TDs 8 FGs]. Tide defenders sacked Ole Miss quarterbacks 5 times marking the 6th time in 7 games that the defense has recorded 3 or more sacks. Ole Miss scored 7 points in the first half, making last night's game the 21st of 22 consecutive games where opponents have been held to 7 or fewer points before the Million Dollar Band takes the field at intermission.
So the state of Alabama football is far from dire. Is there work to be done? Certainly, especially along the offensive line. Is there reason for panic? Absolutely not. At the same time, however, there is no reason whatsoever for complacency.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: B- Alabama earned 17 first downs [only 5 rushing] and 305 total offensive yards [125 rushing]. Eddie Lacy ran for 82 net yards on 19 carries and TJ Yeldon gained 38 yards on 10. Ole Miss was determined to stop Alabama's running game and for the most part it did so. The offense had the ball five times in the first half and scored on four of those drives [2 FG; 2 TD]. Thanks to excellent special teams play, and take-aways on defense, Alabama had 20 points on the scoreboard before it had an offensive drive of at least 40 yards.
On the night, the offense only had three long drives [68, 51, 69] but only scored a single TD while kicking 2 FGs.
AJ had a statistically very efficient night, completing 22 of 30 pass attempts with no interceptions and scoring 2 TDs, both to freshman Amari Cooper.
Cooper led all receivers with 84 yards on 8 catches. His two TDs were instant highlight reel material. The first was initially ruled incomplete, but on review the officials agreed with the fans watching the replay on the jumbo-trons; Cooper had possession of the ball and a foot down in bounds as he crossed the plane of the goal line. The second was a steal over the head of a defensive back who was in perfect position to put an end to AJ's consecutive-pass-attempts-without-an-interception streak.
Eddie Lacy caught 3 passes for 15 yards and Kevin Norwood added 20 yards on 2 receptions. Ten different receivers caught passes.
Although the second half only produced two FGs, the Tide dominated the time of possession in the fourth quarter with the last two drives consuming 25 plays, 120 yards and 13:38 of game time.
The offense converted 11 of 18 possession downs and dominated total time of possession: 34:59 to 25:01.
Defense B Ole Miss earned 218 yards of total offense [80 rushing] and completed 19 of 33 pass attempts for 138 yards, however, three second quarter interceptions effectively put the game in the "Win" column. The Grays had 11 offensive possessions resulting in 2 TDs, 6 punts and 3 picks. The defense held Ole Miss to 8 of 17 third down conversions but allowed Ole Miss to convert on 2 fourth down plays.
The Ole Miss scoring drives were both long [75, 70] and involved multiple plays [13, 16]. Coach Saban said after the game that the no-huddle proved to be a challenge for our defense.
CJ Mosley recorded 8.5 tackles [7 solo], Vinnie Sunseri had 5.5 stops [5 solo] and Trey Depriest was credited with 5 tackles [4 solo]. The Tide tackled Ole Miss ball carriers 8 times for lost yardage [5 sacks], broke up 8 passes and hurried the quarterback 6 times. Deion Belue, Dee Milliner and Robert Lester made interceptions.
Special Teams:
Kicking: A+ Christion Jones returned an Ole Miss kick off 99 yards to erase the temporary scoring advantage the Rebs had achieved in the second quarter and Cade Foster averaged 41.2 net yards per kick with 7 touchbacks. The single Ole Miss kick return gained only 15 yards.
Punting: A- Cody Mandel punted for an average of only 37.7 yards; however, only one punt was returned. Dee Hart returned 2 punts for 22 yards.
Place Kicking: A+ Jeremy Shelley was good on all four FG attempts [38, 38, 26, 24] and on each of three PATs.
Coaching: B The Tide was penalized twice and the participation report lists 50 players who saw action. DeAndrew White and Dee Hart are listed today has having suffered knee injuries requiring evaluation on Monday. Deion Belue is listed with a shoulder injury.
I had been saying it all week: "Alabama needs to be tested."
I even said it during Saturday night's game, and the typical response from people was: "OK, but not against Ole Miss!"
At least Coach Saban agreed with me; up to a point. Following the game, he told reporters: "You have to give Ole Miss a lot of credit. They played hard and with a lot of toughness. We had a lot of respect for their team coming into this, but nobody really listens to me until after the fact and then they say 'Yeah, you were right.' "
I know. It's hard to believe that nobody listens to what Coach Saban has to say. Here's something else he said: "We tell our players to do it right to start with, and prepare the right way." Whether or not fans or the media listen to Coach Saban, I expect the players do. And I expect that the lessons to be learned from the Ole Miss contest are going to be driven home over this week's open date.
On a final note: We had the opportunity to view pre-game warm-ups from the sidelines yesterday. Let me say this: these athletes are big, fast and scary. Even the pre-game hits the players exchange have an impressive kinetic energy. Moreover, Bryant Denny Stadium is loud down on the field, even during warm-ups; I can't imagine how loud it must get during the game.
The Commissioner
Well done, Commish. I remain a little puzzled by the play of the offensive line. They are big, fast, strong and mean. But, last night, Ole Miss' defensive line shot gaps behind pulling lineman and tackled our back for a loss or little gain. Maybe there is a "tell" or busted assignments. Hope we can get it fixed.
ReplyDeleteTrent Richardson was on the sideline last night and I commented to those around me that we probably never appreciated how great he was. We have good backs now, but Trent would have busted some of the tackles last night rather than going down. I don't want to try to tackle Eddie Lacy, but we miss Trent.
You didn't provide a grade for the pre-game "tailgating" in the Waller Tent on the Quad. I give it an A+; great food, cold beverages, great hosts, and a great time to see new and old friends. Thanks for the hospitality!
I pretty much saw the game the same way, though I would give the offense a C instead of a B-. As an academic, I'm trying to hold down the grade inflation. Although AJ and Cooper were simply outstanding and the O line provided some fine pass blocking, they simply couldn't establish dominance at the line of scrimmage to sustain a consistent, typicaly Alabama, running game. The stats bear that out, thus, while the passing game was good, the overall offensive performance was just average. Ole Miss didn't read the press clippings on our O line and came into BDS with the notion that they could stop the Alabama run. Well, the smaller, on average, Ole Miss D line did that pretty effectively. Their downfield coverage was pretty good, too, thus AJ had to throw to the secondary receivers on underneath patterns quite a bit. But for two great catches by Cooper we have a 4 point game or 10 point if you figure we get the FGs instead of TDs. The first catch was a great combination from AJ to the freshman and the timing was perfect, as the replay official realized. The second was Cooper robbing the defender of a sure interception. In any case, we have an average output from the Bama offense. Good news is that there will be no shortage of things to work on at practive over they next two weeks!
ReplyDeleteI think you were too kind, particularly to McCarron. His passing game was off all night. Both of the TD passes to Cooper were made by the receiver and could have been picked off. McCarron had two more long passes that should have been TDs but he underthrew them and one should have been picked off. Even his short passes left a lot to be desired. On the other hand - while the offensive line needs a bit of work, they gave McCarron all day to throw. I don't know why the running game had so much trouble.
ReplyDeleteAnd on coaching - I thought the offensive play calling was unimaginative, at best. Living up here in Seattle and getting to see the UW Huskies play, I was rather surprised when Saban picked one of their coaches to be Bama's new offensive coordinator .... and I'm still waiting to see what Saban saw in him. I hope the play calling picks up and gets more inventive as the season goes on or we're going to continue to have troubles as the teams we play get better.
I was impressed with how well Ole Miss did against our defense on those two long drives. I assume it was the fast play calling, but we often looked confused. We can expect to see that again from other teams since it worked so well for Ole Miss.
We did need to be tested and we got some of that yesterday. Hope that sharpens things up for the team. We never looked like we were in control. But - as you say - a win against an SEC West opponent is always a good thing!
As fan from western NY, your grades are right on. Also, what happened to throwing to the tight ends? Didn't see much of and I thought they had been very successful in previous games. Also, thanks to you and crew for the great hospitality at the tent. (I'm one of Bill's friends). Fabulous atmosphere, like nothing I've ever experienced at any other sporting event.
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